Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling event produced every November by WWE since 1987, generally held the week of Thanksgiving.

Subsequently, the 2016 event featured several interpromotional matches to determine which was the better brand, similar to the previous Bragging Rights pay-per-view.

In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, the event was livestreamed on the WWE Network.

[4] The event comprised 10 matches, including three on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines.

[7][8] At Raw's pay-per-view No Mercy, Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman to retain the Universal Championship,[9] while at SmackDown's Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, Jinder Mahal retained the WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura.

[12][13] On the October 23 episode of Raw, Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman laughed at Mahal's challenge but accepted nevertheless.

[16] Intercontinental Champion The Miz kept his spot in the Survivor Series match by retaining his title against Matt Hardy on the October 30 episode of Raw.

[17] Baron Corbin also kept his spot by retaining the United States Championship against Sin Cara on the November 14 episode of SmackDown.

[14][16] Also on the October 30 episode of Raw, Alexa Bliss retained the Raw Women's Championship against Mickie James, keeping her in the Survivor Series match against the SmackDown Women's Champion;[17] her opponent was originally Natalya, but was changed to Charlotte Flair, who defeated Natalya for the title on the November 14 episode of SmackDown.

[14][16] On the November 6 episode of Raw, Cesaro and Sheamus defeated Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to become the Raw Tag Team Champions,[18] thus making them the champions for the Survivor Series match against The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) who, despite losing by count-out, retained their SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin on the November 7 episode of SmackDown.

Later that episode, Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura qualified for the team by defeating Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Owens, respectively.

[20] The following week, after their match ended in a double count-out, Samoa Joe and Finn Bálor were both added to Team Raw by Angle.

Later in the show, Jordan was (storyline) injured by a returning Bray Wyatt, and rendered unable to compete by Angle.

[15] On the October 24 episode of SmackDown, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Naomi, and Tamina were named as the five members of Team SmackDown's women's team; Becky Lynch became captain by defeating the other four in a fatal five-way match.

[13] Flair was then removed from the team after winning the SmackDown Women's Championship,[16] and she was replaced by former champion Natalya.

During the distraction, Sheamus pinned Rollins to win the Raw Tag Team Championship for him and Cesaro.

[18] Roman Reigns, who had been out with an illness, returned the following week and The Shield challenged The New Day to a six-man tag team match at Survivor Series, which was made official.

[16] At Raw's pay-per-view TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Enzo Amore defeated Kalisto to recapture the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

[22] Kalisto invoked his championship rematch on the following episode of 205 Live, but Amore retained after he was disqualified for attacking the referee.

[26] In the last pre-show match, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn faced Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze).

During the match, Woods performed a Double "Midnight Hour" on Rollins and Ambrose, who were on top of Big E's shoulders.

In the end, Jey performed the "Samoan Splash" on Sheamus to win the match, tying the score at 2-2.

[1] In the main event, Team Raw (Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Finn Bálor, Samoa Joe, and Triple H) battled Team SmackDown (Shane McMahon, Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, and John Cena) in a 5-on-5 elimination match, with the stipulation being that if Team Raw were to lose, Angle would be fired as Raw General Manager.

Strowman pinned Orton after a running powerslam, leaving Shane as the last member of Team SmackDown.

[27] Kane and Strowman continued to feud over the next month, and it was decided that Brock Lesnar would defend the Universal Championship against Kane and Strowman in a triple threat match at the Royal Rumble,[28] which Lesnar won to retain his title.

He then introduced his guest for Miz TV, Roman Reigns, who was accompanied by both Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.

She was then interrupted by Mickie James, Bayley, Sasha Banks, and Alicia Fox, who each wanted a shot at the Raw Women's Championship.

A fatal four-way match between them to determine the number one contender ended in a no contest after being attacked by the returning Paige and the debuts of NXT's Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, who would later be known as Absolution.

He then called out Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn and was about to fire them for the attack at Survivor Series, when General Manager Daniel Bryan instead decided to have Owens and Zayn face The New Day, who they had bailed on the previous week, in a lumberjack match.

[33] Owens and Zayn were subsequently scheduled to fight for their jobs against Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura in a tag team match at Clash of Champions, with Shane and Bryan as guest referees.